Hormone Testing - Blood / Saliva

[ripshit about acne 0]

Has anyone had their hormone levels tested for acne? My derm sent me to the lab yesterday and I should hear @ the results today. I am a 34 yr old woman and am almost hoping there *is* a hormone imbalance... something that I can point to as the cause of acne -- maybe something that can be treated.

I also saw a "naturopath" who said the best way to test hormone levels is not with blood but saliva. Has anyone else ever tried this?

[evigrex 0]

Who told you that? Saliva testing is much less accurate than blood testing...whoever told you that is an idiot.

[nad 0]

ripshit about acne, what hormones were tested?

[SweetJade1980 21]

ripshit,

Yup, I've heard that saliva tests are more accurate, or rather more sensitive, too. I took one of those by Body Balance after my diet changes and my hormone levels came up far higher than I would have hoped. Who knows, but there's so many ways you can get tested these days, depending on the test:

Skin pricks

Urine

Fecal

Saliva

Blood

However, I'm much more familar with getting my blood and urine tested. I had a fecal test once when I was experiencing IBS symptoms, to check for parasites, but it turned out it was only due to my new diet lacking fiber ;-)

Anyway, my most memorable testing experience was 2.5 years ago when I met my 3rd Endocrinologist. He ran 32 tests on me, requiring 17 tubes of blood and 2 - 1 Gallon containers for take home 24 hour urine collection. When I went to get my blood drawn, everyone there knew what doctor had. He's very thorough like that ;-)

Ha and you would think after all of that, the testing would be over, but it wasn't. I had to go in to get my blood sugar levels checked and to be tested for a variety of other possible disorders. Overall, he tested me, and sometimes RETESTED me, for several anemias, gluten intolerance, thyroid, PCOS, Diabetes, NCCAH/LOCAH, Hypercortisolism, Hyperandrogenism, Urinalyis, Liver panel, Cholesterol, did a Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (inlcludes liver & cholesterol), and was even cool enough to test for my Blood Type (O+).

Now, some of those tests were for only one type of disorder or health concern. Then after my diagnosis, every 3 - 4 months, he continued to run several basic tests that required 7 tubes of blood usually. Those would be the CMP & misc. other hormones/vitamins.

Here's some examples as to what I mean:

http://www.labtestsonline.org/understandin...ons/anemia.html

http://www.labtestsonline.org/understandin...ons/celiac.html

http://www.labtestsonline.org/understandin...s/diabetes.html

http://www.labtestsonline.org/understandin.../thyroid-2.html

http://www.labtestsonline.org/understandin.../metabolic.html

http://www.labtestsonline.org/understandin...tions/pcos.html

http://www.labtestsonline.org/understandin...cth/glance.html (checks for adrenal enzyme defficienies)

HTH

[jilly410 0]

Sweetjade -

Do you happen to have a list of all of the various tests you had done? Your endocrinologist sounds wonderful - does he happen to live in MN by chance?

[SweetJade1980 21]

Jilly,

I'd have to go back through my medical records again, but here's something I posted a while back. It has most of what I was tested for in terms of hormones:

SUGGESTED HORMONE TESTS (incl. references ranges)

Free & Total Testosterone, Androstenedione, Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and other hormones can be found here: http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php...tenedione&st=15 (page 2)

Body Balance (Great Smokies Diagnostic Labs)

Estrodial: 5.50 - 13.20 pmol/L

Progesterone: 259 - 979 pmol/L

Testosterone: 25 - 135 pmol/L

Below are hormonal tests that should be run to help with a variety of hormonal diagnosis. This is just a fraction of what my endocrinologist tested me for, but these are the ranges from my hospital's lab, unless otherwise noted:

Cortisol:

AM (7-9pm) serum 4.30 - 22.40 ug/ml

PM (3-5pm) serum 3.09 - 16.66 ug/ml

17-Hydroxycorticosteroid Progesterone (17-OHPS): serum

Male 0.4 - 3.3 ng/ml

Follicular Phase 0.1 - 1.2 ng/ml

Luteal Phase 0.4 - 4.8 ng/ml

(Brook Army Medical Center)

17- Alpha Hydroxycorticosteroid Progesterone (17A-OHPS): serum

Male 0.4 - 3.3 ng/ml

Follicular Phase 0.1 - 1.2 ng/ml

Luteal Phase 0.4 - 4.8 ng/ml

Oral Contraceptives up to 1.2 ng/ml

Postmenopausal up to 0.6 ng/ml

Children (1 - 15 years) up to 3.0 ng/ml

(Brook Army Medical Center)

11-Deoxycortisol (11-DOC)

Males and Females 20 - 130 ng/dl

Post Metyrapone >5000 ng/dl (5 ug/dl)

Post ACTH (60 min. after stimulation)

Males & Premenopausal Females (Follicular) 82 - 290 ng/dl

(Quest Laboratories)

Adrenocorticotrophic Hormone (ACTH):

Plasma 10 - 52 pg/ml

Glucose: Serum 70 - 105 mg/dl

Prolactin (Serum):

Males 2.1 - 17.7 ng/ml

Nonpregnant 2.8 - 29.2 ng/ml

Pregnant 9.7 - 208.5 ng/ml

Postmenopausal 1.8 - 20.3 ng/ml

Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH):

Males (13 -70 years) 1.4 - 18.1 mIU/ml

Normally Menstruating

Follicular Phase 2.5 - 10.2 mIU/ml

Midcycle Peak 3.4 - 33.4 mIU/ml

Luteal Phase 1.5 - 9.1 mIU/ml

Pregnant <0.3 mIU/ml

Postmenopausal 23 - 116.3 mIU/ml

Luteinizing Hormone (LH):

Males

20 -70 years 1.5 - 9.3 mIU/ml

>70 years 3.1 - 34.6

Normally Menstruating

Follicular Phase 1.9 - 12.5 mIU/ml

Midcycle Peak 8.7 - 76.3 mIU/ml

Oral Contraceptives 0.7 - 5.6 mIU/ml

Pregnant <0.1 - 1.5 mIU/ml

Postmenopausal 15.9 - 54 mIU/ml

Estrodial:

Males ND - 52 pg/ml

Postmenopausal (untreated) ND - 37 pg/ml

Menstruating

Follicular Phase

(-12) 11 - 69 pg/ml

(-4) 63 - 165 pg/ml

Midcylce (-1) 146 - 526 pg/ml

Luteal Phase

(+2) 33 - 150 pg/ml

(+6) 68 - 196 pg/ml

(+12) 36 - 133 pg/ml

ND = No detection

Thyroid Stimulating Hormone

(TSH) Sensitive: Serum 0.35 - 5.5 uIU/ml

T4 FREE: serum 0.89 - 1.76 ng/dl

T3 FREE: serum 230 - 420 pg/dl

(Smithkline Laboratories)

Thyroxine Total: serum 4.5 - 12.5 mcg/dl

(Quest Laboratories)

Inhibin: serum

Males < 21 pg/ml

Postmenopausal < 98 pg/ml

Premenopausal < 10 pg/ml

(Quest Laboratories)

DHEA Sulfate: serum

Adult Male 80 - 560 ug/dl

Adult Female 35 - 430 ug/dl

Postmenopausal 10 - 190 ug/dl

BETA HCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin): serum pregnancy test

Positive >25 mIU/ml

Indeterminate 5 - 25 mIU/ml

Negative <5 mIU/ml

If what you want isn't here, then do a search for hormone reference ranges/levels and a variety of sites will provide the info you need. Was there any particular hormonal disorder you were wondering about?

[jilly410 0]

Thanks for posting all of that There are quite a few hormones that are a bit 'off' in my system, so I have been researching and requesting a ton of tests. I know already that I have PCOS and Hypothyroidism, as well as adrenal problems, but I want to make sure I am covering all bases to ensure appropriate treatment.